Why was the temple so significant to Benjamin’s people?

Thomas R. Valletta

“The temple is placed in the center of Israel both literally and symbolically. For ancient Israel, the entire camp was laid out in relationship to the tabernacle, or temple. … The temple is a sacred place where God makes himself and his plan known to his people. … Like ancient Israel, Benjamin’s people ‘pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple’ (Mosiah 2:6). As the word tent can also mean household, or people (Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 4:572), in a very real sense the families of Benjamin’s colony turned toward the temple” (Donaldson, “Benjamin and Noah,” 50–51).

The Book of Mormon Study Guide: Start to Finish

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